Comments

Why is this review based on price and not similarly spec'd machines? Does anyone who buys Apple buy because they're competitive in price? We all know Apple will cost more, I'd think a better review would be seeing how two machines similar in specs perform against one another.

Many people buy computer base on the price. Especially parents buy computer for their kids. Not even can or willing to pay the 50% Apple tax.

Seriouly, if both machines can run MacOS flawlessly, how many people will still buy Apple? Apple is always a hardware company. People willing to pay extra for the quality and the OS. But is the quality still here?

I am still using my 2010 17” MacBook Pro which I pay big bucks for. It is now slow but going strong. If I buy a 2018 MBP, will it still be running in 2026? I doubt it.

Apple sacrifice usability for thinnest or the look. Why a professional laptop need to be that thin?

User can’t easily recover HD data if the motherboard is dead. This is not really professional oriented. In the past, when someone’s computer die, they just put the old HD to a new one and keep working. Can we do that with new MBP?

Why a professional laptop don’t have the most common connector in the world and need to take a dock everywhere?

Why a professional laptop has a such unreliable keyboard that is so easily stop working and need to replace with half of the laptop?

Why the i9 can’t even run in full speed for 20 seconds or risk to toast the CPU?

The answer is simple. MBP is not really designed for professional user anymore. It is for Prosumer market. It is for people with money who careless about functionality. It is for people care for the looks.

Just look at how frequent Mac Pro get updates can tell you how much Apple care about the professional market.

Wow, you really took what I said and worked it into what you want to say about your definition of "Pro" being the only definition that matters - the internet is full of self-serving moronic arguments like that. Thanks, though, for recapping what I've read a zillion times by people who think they are the only PRO users in the world and Apple is only about "the butt hurt" for them. [rolls eyes]

Interesting. You did not answer any of my points but just criticized me in general.

Apple currently offers 3 macs in laptop form, MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro. Tell me which one will a professional pick if they need a workhorse laptop? Is the MacBook Pro offer the same power and flexibility compared to the wintel courterpart at the same price point? MacBook Pro is sure looks sexy and run MacOs. But I don’t think any wintel laptop at that price is not much powerful and less reliable.

Why is this review based on price and not similarly spec'd machines? Does anyone who buys Apple buy because they're competitive in price? We all know Apple will cost more, I'd think a better review would be seeing how two machines similar in specs perform against one another.

Many people buy computer base on the price. Especially parents buy computer for their kids. Not even can or willing to pay the 50% Apple tax.

Seriouly, if both machines can run MacOS flawlessly, how many people will still buy Apple? Apple is always a hardware company. People willing to pay extra for the quality and the OS. But is the quality still here?

I am still using my 2010 17” MacBook Pro which I pay big bucks for. It is now slow but going strong. If I buy a 2018 MBP, will it still be running in 2026? I doubt it.

Apple sacrifice usability for thinnest or the look. Why a professional laptop need to be that thin?

User can’t easily recover HD data if the motherboard is dead. This is not really professional oriented. In the past, when someone’s computer die, they just put the old HD to a new one and keep working. Can we do that with new MBP?

Why a professional laptop don’t have the most common connector in the world and need to take a dock everywhere?

Why a professional laptop has a such unreliable keyboard that is so easily stop working and need to replace with half of the laptop?

Why the i9 can’t even run in full speed for 20 seconds or risk to toast the CPU?

The answer is simple. MBP is not really designed for professional user anymore. It is for Prosumer market. It is for people with money who careless about functionality. It is for people care for the looks.

Just look at how frequent Mac Pro get updates can tell you how much Apple care about the professional market.

Sure parents will generally not spend a lot on a kids computer. They can buy any laptop for less that $500. It will likely be heavy, easily get loaded with Malware and fall to pieces after a few years. Go ahead and get a PC if that is for you.Every Mac I have bought has lasted over 5 years. And I don't have to worry about software, OS or security. Their longevity and staying power seems to be increasing over time. My 1st gen rMBP has lasted for 6 years and is still as fast as it was when I got it. The 2016 MBP is even better because it has a smaller footprint and is 50% lighter with the same screen size. HD die a lot faster than SSD, especially those for laptops. SSDs are a lot faster and are no longer a huge bottleneck. How often does a motherboard die, and even it is does a Time Machine back up can restore everything if you have it set up properly.If you are using a MBP for professional applications then wouldn't you have a external monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. The 15 inch MBP has 4 TB3 ports that allow you to configure externals how you like. I got a dock that provides all the back compatibility I need and can charge from either side. Way more flexible that in the past.

Don’t get me wrong. I am an Apple fan boy. But I am just saying what many people think.

MacOS is great. But I am talking about the hardware. Do Apple really need a professional laptop that thin? Small footprint, yes it is good for travel and sexy. But professional market is about usability.

The super thin design creates thermal problem. No possible to add ram. Can’t exchange HD, no USB A, etc. The MacSafe once Apple so proud of is gone. User need to carry an adapter everywhere in order to connect what most devices use nowadays. The latest and greatest iPhone XS can’t even connect to a new MBP out of the box! If Apple is so committed to UDB-C, why Apple don’t includes an USB C to lighting cable with the new iPhone?

i checked google about data recovery if the logic board is dead in a new MBP. It seems not many people is able to offer the data recovery service. Apple can do it but only if your MBP is still in warranty. After that, you are out of luck. Maybe you can hire some data recovery firm or spy agency if you have enough money. But you don’t, you are done.

Is this how a company provides service for professional or even consumers market?

Why is this review based on price and not similarly spec'd machines? Does anyone who buys Apple buy because they're competitive in price? We all know Apple will cost more, I'd think a better review would be seeing how two machines similar in specs perform against one another.

Many people buy computer base on the price. Especially parents buy computer for their kids. Not even can or willing to pay the 50% Apple tax.

Seriouly, if both machines can run MacOS flawlessly, how many people will still buy Apple? Apple is always a hardware company. People willing to pay extra for the quality and the OS. But is the quality still here?

I am still using my 2010 17” MacBook Pro which I pay big bucks for. It is now slow but going strong. If I buy a 2018 MBP, will it still be running in 2026? I doubt it.

Apple sacrifice usability for thinnest or the look. Why a professional laptop need to be that thin?

User can’t easily recover HD data if the motherboard is dead. This is not really professional oriented. In the past, when someone’s computer die, they just put the old HD to a new one and keep working. Can we do that with new MBP?

Why a professional laptop don’t have the most common connector in the world and need to take a dock everywhere?

Why a professional laptop has a such unreliable keyboard that is so easily stop working and need to replace with half of the laptop?

Why the i9 can’t even run in full speed for 20 seconds or risk to toast the CPU?

The answer is simple. MBP is not really designed for professional user anymore. It is for Prosumer market. It is for people with money who careless about functionality. It is for people care for the looks.

Just look at how frequent Mac Pro get updates can tell you how much Apple care about the professional market.

Wow, you really took what I said and worked it into what you want to say about your definition of "Pro" being the only definition that matters - the internet is full of self-serving moronic arguments like that. Thanks, though, for recapping what I've read a zillion times by people who think they are the only PRO users in the world and Apple is only about "the butt hurt" for them. [rolls eyes]

Interesting. You did not answer any of my points but just criticized me in general.

Apple currently offers 3 macs in laptop form, MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro. Tell me which one will a professional pick if they need a workhorse laptop? Is the MacBook Pro offer the same power and flexibility compared to the wintel courterpart at the same price point? MacBook Pro is sure looks sexy and run MacOs. But I don’t think any wintel laptop at that price is not much powerful and less reliable.

One option:

Lenovo P72 Thinkpad:

"With powerful [6 core] Intel® Core™ and Xeon™ processors, plus amazing next-gen
[8Gb] NVIDIA Quadro® graphics on a brilliant 17.3" display, the ThinkPad P72
sets new standards in mobile workstations. ISV-certified with MIL-SPEC
durability, it comes with [up to 3 harddrives/ssd's] up to 6 TB of storage and 128 GB of memory,
more than enough to handle the most demanding of workflows wherever work
takes you. "

And, what they don't mention is: An outstanding keyboard, hot swappable battery, 230watt charger, and it is fully upgradeable & repairable.Pus, it comes with a full range of ports:

4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (one Always On)

2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C / Intel Thunderbolt™ 3

4-in-1 card reader (MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC)

3.5 mm audio combo jack

HDMI 2.0

Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4

And, this is no delicate, performance only machine that will fail as much as it will work. It's a Thinkpad -- probably the most rugged, reliable laptops on the planet. As one Mac/PC repair facility told me: "They run forever..." The last one I tore down had an aircraft grade titanium frame the full length and width of the laptop inside to support the motherboard.

Essentially, Apple designed themselves right out of this market when they decided to go all in on the thin & light design concept.

But, they are pricey: They start at about $1,500 and go to over $6,000 fully configured.

I would love to see ai do a full comparison of this animal versus a MacBook Pro. It would be difficult: They are apples and oranges that clearly target different markets. But both are top of the line beasts with more power than most mainframes of only a few years ago...

After thought: This thing comes with as much RAM memory as the base MacBook has storage -- and as much video RAM as the base MacBook has RAM! It's just in a whole different class...

Why is this review based on price and not similarly spec'd machines? Does anyone who buys Apple buy because they're competitive in price? We all know Apple will cost more, I'd think a better review would be seeing how two machines similar in specs perform against one another.

Many people buy computer base on the price. Especially parents buy computer for their kids. Not even can or willing to pay the 50% Apple tax.

Seriouly, if both machines can run MacOS flawlessly, how many people will still buy Apple? Apple is always a hardware company. People willing to pay extra for the quality and the OS. But is the quality still here?

I am still using my 2010 17” MacBook Pro which I pay big bucks for. It is now slow but going strong. If I buy a 2018 MBP, will it still be running in 2026? I doubt it.

Apple sacrifice usability for thinnest or the look. Why a professional laptop need to be that thin?

User can’t easily recover HD data if the motherboard is dead. This is not really professional oriented. In the past, when someone’s computer die, they just put the old HD to a new one and keep working. Can we do that with new MBP?

Why a professional laptop don’t have the most common connector in the world and need to take a dock everywhere?

Why a professional laptop has a such unreliable keyboard that is so easily stop working and need to replace with half of the laptop?

Why the i9 can’t even run in full speed for 20 seconds or risk to toast the CPU?

The answer is simple. MBP is not really designed for professional user anymore. It is for Prosumer market. It is for people with money who careless about functionality. It is for people care for the looks.

Just look at how frequent Mac Pro get updates can tell you how much Apple care about the professional market.

Wow, you really took what I said and worked it into what you want to say about your definition of "Pro" being the only definition that matters - the internet is full of self-serving moronic arguments like that. Thanks, though, for recapping what I've read a zillion times by people who think they are the only PRO users in the world and Apple is only about "the butt hurt" for them. [rolls eyes]

Interesting. You did not answer any of my points but just criticized me in general.

Apple currently offers 3 macs in laptop form, MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro. Tell me which one will a professional pick if they need a workhorse laptop? Is the MacBook Pro offer the same power and flexibility compared to the wintel courterpart at the same price point? MacBook Pro is sure looks sexy and run MacOs. But I don’t think any wintel laptop at that price is not much powerful and less reliable.

One option:

Lenovo P72 Thinkpad:

"With powerful [6 core] Intel® Core™ and Xeon™ processors, plus amazing next-gen
[8Gb] NVIDIA Quadro® graphics on a brilliant 17.3" display, the ThinkPad P72
sets new standards in mobile workstations. ISV-certified with MIL-SPEC
durability, it comes with [up to 3 harddrives/ssd's] up to 6 TB of storage and 128 GB of memory,
more than enough to handle the most demanding of workflows wherever work
takes you. "

And, what they don't mention is: An outstanding keyboard, hot swappable battery, 230watt charger, and it is fully upgradeable & repairable.Pus, it comes with a full range of ports:

4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (one Always On)

2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C / Intel Thunderbolt™ 3

4-in-1 card reader (MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC)

3.5 mm audio combo jack

HDMI 2.0

Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4

And, this is no delicate, performance only machine that will fail as much as it will work. It's a Thinkpad -- probably the most rugged, reliable laptops on the planet. As one Mac/PC repair facility told me: "They run forever..." The last one I tore down had an aircraft grade titanium frame the full length and width of the laptop inside to support the motherboard.

Essentially, Apple designed themselves right out of this market when they decided to go all in on the thin & light design concept.

But, they are pricey: They start at about $1,500 and go to over $6,000 fully configured.

I would love to see ai do a full comparison of this animal versus a MacBook Pro. It would be difficult: They are apples and oranges that clearly target different markets. But both are top of the line beasts with more power than most mainframes of only a few years ago...

After thought: This thing comes with as much RAM memory as the base MacBook has storage -- and as much video RAM as the base MacBook has RAM! It's just in a whole different class...

You certainly get what you pay for with those. Not in the same class of course, but who asked Apple to make a MacBook Pro that competes with the MacBook Air in thickness anyway!

The biggest thing here to me is that the MX150 beats the 555X at OpenCL performance, an area which historically has been cited as a reason Apple stays with AMD (apart from the legal spat...Nvidia usually hasn't cared to optimize OpenCL as much in favor of CUDA, which performs even better). That's a low end, small, cheap part beating something you get in an rMBP for nearly three grand. The 560X is a bit faster, but...That's a bit of a sad state, considering the cost and power use.